SWLABR

"SWLABR"
German single picture sleeve
Single by Cream
from the album Disraeli Gears
A-side	"Sunshine of Your Love"
Released	January 1968[1] (US)
Format	7-inch 45 rpm record
Recorded	Atlantic Studios, New York City, May 1967[2]
Genre	Psychedelic rock, hard rock
Length	2:34
Label	Atco
Writer(s)	Pete Brown, Jack Bruce
Producer(s)	Felix Pappalardi
Cream American singles chronology
"Spoonful" (1967)[3] "SWLABR" (1968) "Anyone for Tennis" (1968)[3]
Music sample "SWLABR"

"SWLABR" is a 1967 song by British rock band Cream.

Background

The song was a collaborative writing effort between poet Pete Brown and bassist Jack Bruce, with Brown providing the lyrics and Bruce the music. The song was released on the 1967 album Disraeli Gears and in 1968 as the B-side to the single "Sunshine of Your Love" on ATCO in the U.S.

Bruce sings and plays bass guitar, with Eric Clapton on guitars, and Ginger Baker on drums. The title is an initialism for "She Walks Like a Bearded Rainbow".^[4] Bruce later commented that the W stood for "Was" rather than "Walks".^[5] This alternative title was also referenced by Brown in a 2006 interview.^[6]

A live version of "SWLABR" was released on BBC Sessions and the Deluxe Edition of Disraeli Gears. A four-minute outtake also appeared on the Disraeli Gears Deluxe Edition. The studio version appears on several Cream compilation albums, including Best of Cream, Heavy Cream, Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream, The Very Best of Cream, Those Were the Days, and Gold.

1967 U.S. 45 single release on ATCO.

References

1. Billboard (6 January 1968). "Bubbling under the Hot 100". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media. 80 (1): 51. ISSN 0006-2510.
2. Disraeli Gears Liner Notes
3. Welch, Chris (2011). Clapton. Voyageur Press. eBook. ISBN 978-1610597715.
4. "Lyrics: Disraeli Gears". JackBruce.com (official website). Retrieved 9 August 2016.
5. Interview with disc jockey Steven Seaweed at San Francisco radio station KRQR in the mid-1990s
6. "Cream: Disraeli Gears", Classic Albums on VH1, 3 November 2006

Sources

• Clapton, Eric (2007). Clapton: The Autobiography. New York, United States: Broadway Books. pp. g. 74. ISBN 978-0-385-51851-2.
• Hjort, Christopher (2007). Strange Brew: Eric Clapton & the British Blues Boom, 1965–1970. London, UK: Jawbone Press. pp. g. 29. ISBN 978-1-906002-00-8.
• Ertegün, Ahmet (2006). Classic Albums: Cream – Disraeli Gears (DVD). Eagle Rock Entertainment.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics